At Rest
by muchoblidged
Summary: Alfred gets a little tired during a long bus ride, and Ivan is more than happy to assist his comrade - er, teammate. A prologue to Dear Diary by ai-08. Pairing/s/: slight RussiaxAmerica/IvanxAlfred A/U


Author's Note: This fic is based off the AU RussiaxAmerica fan fiction Dear Diary by ai-08 which can be found at http:/ www. fanfiction .net /s/ 5663724/1/ (Remove the spaces.) ai-08 gave me permission to post this, and I am eternally grateful for that. Go read this original, it's absolutely marvelous.

This takes place a year before the original, with Alfred as a freshman and Ivan as a junior. I attempted to mimic the style of the original with questionable results...

Please enjoy this silly little one shot.

* * *

**January 17**

Bored out of my mind. We're heading back from the away game, and it's like one in the freaking morning. I wouldn't know, since I forgot my cellphone, my watch _and_ my iPod, leaving me with absolutely nothing to do. We won at least, so that's pretty awesome. I made a basket too. But this bus ride is so freaking long and I'm freaking bored. And cold. But the bus driver won't turn the heat up so I'm stuck – wait...!

Aw, fuck.

I thought I brought my granddad's jacket. It's a bomber jacket from when he served some war…Korea, I think. It's really warm, but I guess I left that behind too…Really wish the coach would give me more heads-ups about these things so I could pack right.

Actually…I think I let Tino borrow it. Gonna go check.

_Later_

Fuck. Never walking around the bus again.

I was heading over to Tino's seat when all of a sudden the bus jerks to a stop and the bus driver turns around and tells me to sit the hell down. I had actually sort of fallen into a seat when the bus jerked forward, but I'd started to stand up because I was next to Ivan Braginski.

I have no idea what that guy's problem is, but everyone is either freaked out by him or hates his guts. I've only talked to him once, and I can kind of see why. He's just so…I dunno, creepy. He's always smiling no matter what happens and he always makes things too wordy. Also, he's got this freakish habit of sneaking up behind you, listening to half your conversation and then scaring the shit out of you when he decides to talk. He's a junior, and one of our best players, and I think he's a bit too aware of that. But whatever, y'know? I just kept my distance from him. That's kind of impossible now since I'm fucking stuck next to him.

Y'know what he said when I pretty much fell on him?

"Oh, hello, Alfred. We haven't spoken in a while, but I would be glad to let you share my seat."

And when the bus driver told me to sit down, he put his hand on my shoulder and said "Please, don't delay our trip any further. You wouldn't want to make things difficult, da?" At least he's not trying to see what I'm writing.

I'm still cold, even more so now since my seat's not above the heater/fan thing.

– Scratch that, I swear he just looked.

Putting this away for now…Will write later if I can get out of here.

_Later_

No. That did not happen. It just…didn't okay? It didn't.

Seriously.

I started writing again 'cause Braginski fell asleep, but…what the hell? That's just…_no_.

So I put away my journal and looked at Braginski who was totally staring at me. (He's freaking tall so I had to look at him too…) I glared at him, just to let him know I knew he was staring at me, but he just put on that stupid smile and said, "You are cold?"

Fucking knew he was looking.

I told him no, no I wasn't, I was fine, and his smile got bigger and he said, "I do believe your jacket is with Tino, but for the mean time I would be happy to lend mine to you. It would do you more good, da?"

I tried to tell him I was fine (and that he should mine his own fucking business) but he took off his jacket – no, this thing is a fucking _trench coat – _and he put it around my shoulders. Then he kind of raised his hand like he was going to ruffle my hair or pat my shoulder, but he just put it down and asked "It will suffice, da?"

I'm still wearing the thing. I mean, it's a really nice coat, long and beige with brown trim, so I just kind of looked away and mumbled "Sure, whatever." because his weird smile was seriously starting to make skin crawl.

I didn't have anything to do so I just leaned back and tried to relax and I guess I…sort of…fell asleep.

On Braginski.

I kind of remember leaning over and putting my head on something cold, but I thought it was the window…I was too tired to realize that I didn't have a window seat anymore, since I was sitting next to Braginski…

So it wasn't the window, it was his shoulder.

Ugh.

I woke up around seven, I guess, because the other guys started getting up too and starting to talk, and I…

I don't even want to say it but…I was _lying on his lap._ Like, my head was on his legs.

What creep lets someone just sleep on their fucking lap? I get pissed when someone leans on my shoulder, but on my lap? What the hell?

But I haven't even gotten to the weird(est) part yet. He had his hand in my hair…I'm pretty sure he was stroking it or something, but that might've just been the bus bumping around. He was humming too.

Fucking. Freak.

It's weird, though. I don't really fall asleep on bus rides. Maybe it's because it's usually too loud, and the team was pretty quiet this time. It might've even been Braginski's stupid jacket, which was actually pretty comfortable, even if it was way too big for me.

Shit, Braginski's waking up. He'll probably want his coat back too.

_Later_

My jacket was actually at the bottom of my bag the whole time. I couldn't see it in the dark. Damn.

_Later_

And Braginski won't fucking stop talking to me now! I swear I'm going to push him out the window if he keeps trying to strike up a conversation. But he complimented me on my game, so it hasn't been completely horrible.

_Later_

Almost back to the campus. Braginski seems to be shutting up now, thank God. But I don't think he'll leave me alone.

"You seem to be quiet today, but I would like to talk to you again. Maybe we can do this another time." He asked, and I thought _What the hell? Be forced to sit together and then have me fall asleep on you?_ I gave him a look and he sort of chuckled (which was also weird…I don't think I know anyone who "chuckles"…except Francis, maybe.) and clarified: "I mean, we could talk again." which made me relax.

So maybe he is an enormous, long-winded creep that lets people get _way _too close, but I said "Yeah" because hell, there are worse people to be stuck with, and really, he's not that bad.


End file.
